THE SERBIAN EPIC BALLADS - Geoffrey N. W. Locke

THE SERBIAN EPIC BALLADS (AN ANTHOLOGY). Translated by Geoffrey N. W. Locke (234pp). With a Foreword by Muriel Heppel.
Timothy John Byford reads the poem "The Marriage of Dusan"
The oral Epics of the Serbian people are unique. Based on history and legend, their tales range from high tragedy, told with simple dignity, through descriptions of historic splendour and of stirring deeds and dramatic adventures (frequently laced with humour), to knockabout farce. The robust characters they portray are a recognisable mixture, in a Balkan setting, of King Arthur, Robin Hood, and even James Bond.
The men and women bards who composed and performed these traditional oral ballads over many centuries so constantly improved, refined, and polished them that they developed into the richest, as well as the most entertaining body of epic literature in any European language. In this book a representative selection of thirty of the finest ballads has been freely translated into English in an attractive, fluent and readable style which, without sacrificing accuracy, fully reveals the poetic grandeur, freshness, zest, and humour of the originals.

CONTENTS: FOREWORD * INTRODUCTION * NOTES ON TRANSLITERATION AND PRONUNCIATION (XLpp) * THE EPIC BALLADS: Of the mediaeval Empire: Tsar Dushan's Wedding; Saint Peter and his Mother; The Building of Ravanitsa; Banovich Strahinya Of the Battle of Kosovo: Tsar Lazar and Tsaritsa Militsa; Stefan Musich; The Maiden of Kosovo; The Death of the Mother of the Yugovichi Of Marko Kralyevich: Marko's First Heroic Deed; Marko drinks Wine during Ramadan; The Ploughing of Marko Kralyevich; How Marko went Hunting with the Turks; Marko Kralyevich and Musa the Highwayman; Marko Kralyevich and the Eagle; How the Turks came to Marko's Slava; The Death of Marko Kralyevich Of the Outlaws: How Miyat Tomich became an Outlaw; Starina Novak and Bold Radivoye; Starina Novak and Knez Bogosav; Old Vuyadin; Mali Radoyitsa Of the Noblemen: The Death of Voivoda Priyezda; How the Brothers Yakshich shared their Inheritance; Ailing Doichin; The Ban of Zrin and the Maiden Begzada Of the Border Raiders: Ivo Senkovich and the Aga of Ribnik; Tadia Senyanin Of the Montenegrins: The Three Prisoners; How they took Beg Lyubovich's Sheep Of the Nineteenth-Century Uprisings: The Start of the Revolt against the Dahiyas * APPENDIX -- NOTES ON THE BALLADS.

"This is certainly one of the best, if not the best translation of the epic ballads into English."

Dr E.D.Goy (South Slav Journal)

"Arguably the most readable translation of the songs yet published . . . Locke's translations may well be the finest available."

Celia Hawkesworth (Slavonic & E. European Review)

"Locke's settings have all the sheen of old silver, even its patina. One has the strong impression that one is not in fact reading a translation but enjoying a universal work of art -- a song sung in its mother-tongue."

Professor Nada Miloševic-Djordjevic (Foreword to the first edition)

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